I Will Be With You No Matter What
by Taro Amaya
Summary: Yugi and his friends find a girl unconscious in the Ancient Egyptian exhibition in the Domino Museum, but he gets a little more than he bargained for when he finds out about her millenium item.Chpt 4 up! R&R Please!
1. The Millenium Arm Band

_She looked around the dark exhibition, she was assigned to this area when the other volunteer was knocked out and left there till morning. When they found her, she was saying that she was knocked out with a millennium item, though she didn't even have one. That's what scared her the most because she had a millennium item, but she found comfort in being in the Egyptian part of the Museum, she was able to read the different hieroglyphics and stories. She found most interest in the story about the Pharaoh Yami and the sorcerer, her father had always told her that she was related to one of Yami's closest advisors even more so than anyone in her family because of her millennium arm band. Then suddenly she felt a shot of pain in the back of her head, she collapsed to the hard tiles and blacked out. As everything faded she saw the flash of the millennium rod…_

Yugi walked warily into the exhibit followed by his friends Tea and Joey, he looked around. Near the ancient tomes that he read before, lay a young girl about his age with long dark brown hair and slightly tanned skin. She wore the typical clothes of a volunteer security guard working here.

"Guys! Gimme a hand with this!" he exclaimed as he ran to her.

They lifted her up on to one of the couches and attempted to wake her, seeing as she wouldn't budge Tea went to get security. As they waited Yugi watched girl curiously, he felt like he should have known her. He heard Yami's spirit pondering quietly in his head. Suddenly the girl started thrashing about in her unconsciousness, he and Joey backed away as she started mumbling inaudible words. Then he picked up the name "Amaya" and heard it repeated again and again in what seemed to be nightmare. The head security guard ran in with Tea,

"Dammit! That's the second time this week!" he yelled.

As he made his own attempt at waking her she seemed to calm down and her eyelids fluttered open, revealing gentle silver eyes. He heard Yami gasp; he had obviously pieced whatever the puzzle was in his head together. He turned to the Guard,

"You mean this has happened to her before?"

"No, not to her. It happened to the other volunteer who used to work here and I think that was a case of mistaken identity," he turned to the girl, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," she reached to the back of her head, she recoiled her hand, "Ouch, whoever that was hit me hard."

She sat up and her eyes widened, her hand shot to her upper right arm. She sighed,

"Whew, I was afraid that he might…"

"He?" the security guard asked.

"Well… Yes. As I blacked out I saw the shadow of a man run off." She answered.

"Seeing as your awake now I guess your okay, Ari. You don't have to come back tonight; I'll get someone else on your shift."

"Thanks, I'd better get home. Family's probably worried." Ari said, standing up.

As she walked out Yugi waved to his friends to follow him, they caught up to her when she ambled in to the foyer. Yugi wanted to know who she was,

"Hey!"

"Hm? Oh, I forgot to say thank you for helping me out. So thanks."

"What's your name?" he asked.

"My name's Ariana Itsuko, my friends call me Ari. Yours?"

"Mine's Yugi, this is Joey and Tea."

"Nice to meet you three, Hey listen, do you go to Domino High?" they nodded, "Well maybe I'll see you there! Bye!"

She waved and ran out the museum doors, later that night as he went to bed he asked Yami, why he reacted the way he did,

"I sensed her millennium item, it belonged to someone whom it… it hurts to remember." Yami answered.

"Why?"

"It's a long story…" Yami replied.

"There's no school tomorrow, so you might as well tell me." Yugi had never heard Yami speak like that before.

"Alright then… I'll tell you, her name was Amaya. She was a slave in the kitchens when I first met her, we were at war then and no strategy worked against the Babylonians. She somehow struck me as a person who had her own idea so I approached and asked her what she thought we should do. She told me to send a small group of men to the west so it would send the Babylonians on a pointless chase and then send out half of the men we still had to the enemy camp to kill their leader. Then send the other half of those men out to rejoin with the other half and go and kill the rest of the Babylonian army, I used this strategy no matter how shaky the advice of a slave was. I was amazed at the results, her strategy not only won us the war but Babylonia was willing to agree to a peace treaty."

"Whoa, what happened then?"

"Well, I wanted to thank her for what she did by sending her to Babylonia to organise the agreement. Though I decided it to be a better course to test her again, I had her sent to work in the treasury. The Treasurer assigned her to organising the gold that will be needed for trade; she took about two hours sorting it and came out from the vault, gave the key to the warden and said to trade the whole amount to Phoenicia. She apparently gave the names of people to trade with to the trade cart driver, but I decided to be careful I sent half to Babylonia and the other half to Phoenicia. While we waited for their return I researched into Amaya's background, Three days passed and I found it, when she was little she was kidnapped and though she was noble born apparently sold into slavery. Five days later the cart from Babylonia came back with what I expected it to come back with, 2 days after that the cart from Phoenicia returned with 3 times as much as I expected. Surprised, I went to the treasury to talk with her. Amaya was set to organising the rations into four parts, then she did something I hadn't seen before. As always she was using grains of wheat to organise it, she picked up two grains, took a knife and cut them both in equal halves. She put 1 half in each part, when she put the slat down I coughed to get her attention. It was only now that I noticed her millennium arm band and her lavender eyes, I told her I wanted to send her to Babylonia to organise the peace treaty. Shocked, she told me that if they found out she was just a slave they'd kill her. I answered with the information that she wasn't a slave by birth; she was unrightfully sold as a slave. She thanked me profusely for what I did; I gave her the gold to buy new clothes and extra for the trip."

"What then?" Yugi asked, beginning to fatigue.

"You're tired; I'll tell you the rest through a dream. Goodnight." Yami answered.

"Goodnight."


	2. The Dream

A woman in blue and white silks rode to the entrance of the palace where the Pharaoh was waiting for her. She jumped off the horse and handed the reins to the stable-hand, she gave a scroll of Papyrus to the Pharaoh and said,

"Here is the treaty, Pharaoh. I believe everything is in order."

"Thank you Amaya," the Pharaoh answered quietly.

Amaya seemed concerned, "Has something happened?"

The Pharaoh looked at his advisor, she didn't appear to be like a slave anymore, "No, nothing."

He was lying, of course there was something wrong but he didn't want to tell her that he'd been having visions of a war that would destroy Egypt. She examined him with her eyes; Amaya was very decisive when she wanted to be,

"Very well but if you want to ask me anything I will do what I can."

She glided away in to the palace, Yami was already struggling with the fact that he didn't tell his own advisor what he had seen but he reassured himself that it was the best thing not to tell her, for now. He had to get ready for the celebrations of the victory against the Babylonians, he hurried in to his bedroom because it was almost sundown. As he got ready, Yami felt weak all of a sudden as though his legs just didn't want to move. He stumbled and fell to the hard floor and everything went pitch black…

_A man in black leads me through my city as it burns, my people are dying all around me. We stop, I try to yell but no sound leaves my mouth, I try to run but my feet are set to the ground. I want to help them but something won't let me, something that has a stronger will than I. The man then leads me to an untouched chamber in the palace and I see them, my advisors, my friends and anyone who helped me during this all trapped behind ice. I look at the one who is leading me but finally I realise he had left in his place I see a huge ice dragon, I couldn't escape, it had trapped me in my own palace. I close my eyes waiting for it to deal the same fate to me as it had my friends, coldness surrounds me, I can't breathe…_

Yami woke with a start, he looked out the sky. It was dark; he decided not to go to the celebration it was probably over for all he knew. He walked over to the archway showing a clear view of Egypt, he lent on the stone barrier that came up to his waist and gazed out at the stars. A few minutes later he heard a silvery voice behind him,

"There you are, what happened?" it was Amaya.

"I decided not to go," he answered not looking at her.

"May I come in?"

He nodded still not looking at her,

"Pharaoh, I know that isn't the reason, I know you have seen a vision of Egypt's demise. At least, the demise of its people," she said quietly.

He turned to her, shocked he asked, "How do you know?"

She grimaced, "I have seen it too…"

He suddenly needed to sit down, he knew now that he wasn't going insane. He was thankful for at least that but why was she having the same vision?

"Do you know what it means?" he inquired.

She shrugged, "I have no idea, and I wish I did. All I know is that Egypt's people will be thrown in to war and it will destroy them."

"Is there nothing that can stop it?"

Her brown hair slipped over her shoulder as her head bowed, she dusted it back to reveal her lavender eyes wrought with sorrow,

"As far as I know, nothing can stop it."

It was a question of loyalty suddenly for the Pharaoh, "Will you stay by me when this time comes?"

"Of course I will, you helped me become what I am now."

He smiled, "Thankyou Amaya, it helps to know that I will have friends with me during times like these."

Amaya padded out of the room, he didn't know then what she would do for him in 4 years time. 3 years later Yami led a skirmish group in to a battle; he defeated the enemy group but almost died on the battle field. He woke in the medical bay, Amaya was treating him.

"Amaya? Wh-," Yami asked but she hushed him.

"Quiet now, that was quite a beating you took."

"How cough long have I been out?"

"Close to six days now, you had us worried." She answered.

"Why are you here?"

"We didn't have enough healers, so I volunteered. Funny how much you can do with a few herbs."

The Pharaoh was amazed by her loyalty, many had defected when the war began but she had remained with the few men and healers they had. Though she wasn't just and advisor to him, she was a friend that would put on a suit of armour willingly and go out in to war to help you. She already had done this and was willing to do it again and again until the war was over. He put his hand over hers,

"You don't have to do this you know."

She smiled, "I know, I just do it anyway."

4 years later they had won the war, he and Amaya were talking in the main hall with their backs to the entrance. The Pharaoh was asking what they should do next,

"We should send out scouting parties to find any survivors, we don't want them causing any trouble."

"Hmm, Yes, I know that when they lose they usually take on assassination tasks."

"Well I'll go and organise it." Amaya turned to leave.

Suddenly the Pharaoh felt himself shoved to the ground, he heard the whizzing sound of an arrow being fired. Turned over onto his back and saw Amaya on her knees with an arrow in her gut, he moved over and caught her before she fell,

"There's one _cough, cough_ now."

He looked up and saw the archer, "Guards! Get him!"

"Well, I _cough_ guess that's a good _cough_ reason to send the scouts out _choke_"

He wrenched the arrow out of her stomach and laid her gently on the ground, "Why did you do that?"

She smiled feebly, "I told you, _cough_ I would stand by you _cough_ even if _choke_ it meant death."

Yami felt tears in his eyes; he knew the arrow was meant for him, Amaya reached up to him, "Remember _choke_ if you ever need my advice just _cough_ ask," she rested her hand on his shoulder, "I will be with you, no matter what."

The Pharaoh finally let himself cry as he watched her last breath leave her…


	3. Just Curiousity

Disclaimer:

Do not own YGO!

Only own Amaya, Ariana Itsuko and other possible characters in later chapters.

* * *

**Yugi's POV**

Yugi however didn't know that the Pharaoh was hiding something…

The next day went pretty slowly, there wasn't much to do except run errands. Yugi found himself looking forward to a school day. On Monday Yugi walked in to his first class for the day, computer studies and sat down at the computer alongside Joey's. He logged in as the teacher told them what they had to do,

"You must use the USB holosticks to generate a hologram of a duel monster; I will come around near the end of the lesson to check that the monster is identifiable."

He heard someone mutter from the other side of the room,

"As if he doesn't set hard enough assignments."

This was followed by hushed giggles which were drowned out by the quick typing of the few computer wizards in the class, so he started his attempt at making a Kuribo hologram. He wasn't sure about what Joey was doing but from the colour it looked like a red eyes, he started up the holostick and just saw a blob of brown and green. It was getting close to the end of the lesson and it had only improved a little; he felt a pang of nerves when he heard someone behind him,

"If you want a clear holo, you need to tweak the focus a bit."

A slender hand reached over the mouse and turned one of the dials on the screen and the Kuribo hologram became clearer, it was able to be identified by anyone now. He looked over at the person who was now helping Joey, who seemed to have the same problem as he did and there was Ariana,

"Just next time remember the focus."

She went back to her own computer; she had made a Red-brown dragon that looked a lot like Tomaius. The teacher came around and everyone got fairly good marks, the bell went and they all filed out the door and that funnily enough was the only trace he saw of Ariana until lunch. He was looking through the library for any info on the Advisor Amaya when he walked into someone carrying a large stack of books, sending the books toppling along with a fairly large and heavy one hitting him squarely on the head. When he got his senses back he realised he was lying on the ground and Ariana was leaning over him,

"I am so sorry! I couldn't see you coming around the corner, are you okay?"

He groaned as he gripped his head, "I think so, were you the one carrying those books?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry! Do you need a hand?"

"Actually I do, I'm looking for a specific book that's on the advisors of the Pharaoh Atemu."

"Ah… I think I might be able to help you there but why do you need that sort of information?"

"Err…" Yugi looked for an answer, "Just out of interest."

"Oh, okay. This way then," she waved him in the direction of the books he sought.

"The most accurate, I think is the book by an Egyptian seer, who apparently painted the most accurate paintings of all the advisors. Ah! Here it is. That what you were looking for?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Good, now I'd better get moving. I'm so sorry!"

She ran down the isle of books and disappeared, she was very apologetic for accidentally hurting him. He liked her, he had to admit that but as such only as a friend. Now he had to focus on the book he now held in his hands, he walked to the desk to check out the book and walked slowly to get his stuff to leave as he looked through the book. It was old and dusty, some pages had rips and the pages looked like they were all coffee stained. He found the page he was looking for, the first picture of the section on Amaya was that of a 45 degree angle painting of a beautiful young woman with gentle lavender eyes, sleek brown hair, a light tan and the Millennium Armband. He took out a scrap piece of paper and used it to mark the page, he stuffed the book in to his bag and went and found Joey, Tristan and Tea and caught the bus home. When he got home he ran up stairs and tossed his bag onto the floor and dragged out the book, Yami stopped him from turning straight to Amaya's part of the book,

"Perhaps you should look at the information on my other advisors first."

Yugi did as he was told, he found out a lot of interesting things about the other advisors such as Seth and Isis and before he could read the section on Amaya, he was called down for dinner,

"Wow, it's been that long!"

"Yes you seemed very absorbed in the book."

"Well it was fascinating."

He ate quickly and jumped up the stairs, he sat down on his bed picked up the book and turned to Amaya. It seemed that she had done much for Egypt but it said nothing of her taking part in the War, beyond the third year of the war the book said she was killed protecting the Pharaoh as he had said but not by an assassin, after the word assassin the text was smudged and he couldn't read any of it. Her part of the book was long, by the time he finished it, it was 10:00 and he was tired but he still wanted to know how Amaya was really killed,

"Yami?"

"Yes, Yugi?"

"The book said that Amaya wasn't killed by assassins, is it true?"

"Yes…"

"Then how did she die?"

Yami sighed, "Honourably…"

Yugi went to sleep still wondering who or what killed Amaya.

* * *

**Yami's POV**

His heart stung with old memories, why did she have to die? He loved her dearly but she sacrificed her life for his, afterwards he died inside, physically dying was a relief somewhat. Yugi seemed to have taken on a quest to find out as much as he can about Ariana's counterpart. Should he have told Yugi the truth about Amaya's death? He groaned again as another invisible dagger was stabbed in to his heart, to think about her, even after 5,000 years, after she died in his arms, was painful. Perhaps he would tell Yugi tomorrow about who killed her and why tomorrow.


	4. Time for a duel!

Disclaimer:

Do not own YGO! Only own card names that I've made up and the characters Amaya and Ariana.

R&R no flames please

Yugi knew that it would be better not to ask his Grandfather about the millennium armband until he knew more about it, after a couple of days he couldn't find anything until he saw Ariana in the corridor during lunch, she was talking to Rex,

"… and that's the best use for Uraby, unless you're playing with the right terrain then you could just use it to move straight in on lone monsters!"

"Thanks for the tips Ari! I better get moving," and he ran off.

She turned to them and smiled, Joey just asked,

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he's an old friend I knew since we were little."

Yugi gave her a confused look,

"Well, you should know he's easily corrupted!"

"The power of the orikalkos afflicted those with its darkness, who were tricked into believing Dartz's manipulations," she answered very wisely, then snapped back into reality, "Oops I have a class! See you guys later!"

Yugi looked at his own watch and realised they had class too! He and his friends hurried to Science, on the way he asked Yami something,

"What was that all about?"

"That was Amaya coming through; Ariana was momentarily given Amaya's wisdom in return for Ariana's inhibitions. Of course she returned to normal when the point was made."

Yugi shrugged and walked into Science, after spending the whole time hanging over a chemical tray he went of to English and all he could hear was laughing and clapping from the other classroom. The teacher rose and said,

"From what I hear next door is ready to present us with a preview to an event later this week."

They were ushered into the room next door and saw a group of students dressed up as different Duel Monsters, each wearing masks on a makeshift stage of tables. One dressed as Mystic Elf swept up,

"We all know that Duel Monsters is a defining part in our school right? Well this Friday we are having a Duelling tournament, were the best of our schools duellists come out to shine. As well as monsters…"

She walked off as a few monsters jumped up on stage; the main attraction was Saggi the Dark Clown being played by another girl, she did a short gymnastic floor routine across the stage and landed doing the splits,

"I may look funny," she did a purposely clumsy cartwheel and landed on her backside, making everyone laugh, "But I'm tougher than I look."

She then did a small sequence which made her look like she was fighting someone, then the Blue Eyes White Dragon tapped her on the shoulder, she yelped and tripped on one of the big shoes she was wearing. While everyone was still laughing, she quickly jumped back up and said,

"Make sure we see you at the tournament! We'll look forward to it!"

Later that day, Yugi heard a shrill nasal voice calling out commands to a Duel Monster. He followed the sound until he spotted Weevil Underwood duelling Ariana, they had obviously only just started because they were both on four thousand life points. Ariana had three cards on the field, one face down and two monsters he hadn't seen before, one was a sword and shield wielder in all ornate red armour. The other was an archer clothed in all white armour; Weevil had four cards on the field, two face down and one Kwagar Hercules and Petit Moth. Ariana spoke,

"Hm, well I could attack but first I have to find out or get rid of your face down cards. So I play, Mystical Space Typhoon to get the first of your face down cards."

One of the cards disintegrated on Weevil's side of the field, he struggled to keep a straight face as the card went to the Graveyard. Ariana smirked,

"Now, to power up my first monster, I play the red rose sword and equip it to my Lancastrian Swordsman. Giving it and extra six hundred extra attack points! Now my monster, attack petit moth! Red Rose Revenge!!"

The swordsman's sword glowed brilliantly as it charged towards the monster; it brought its sword around and sliced the petit moth in two. The monster disintegrated and Weevil glared at Ariana, who grinned back to spite him,

"And with that I end my turn."

Their duel had already attracted a crowd, so Yugi decided to try and find his way through so he could get a good view of this duel. It looked like it could be fun to watch Weevil get thumped by someone other than himself.


End file.
